I mentioned in another thread I'm reading "Deploying and Troubleshooting Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers" . It seems everyone wants job experience with Cisco (although I don't know why when UBNT has such disruptive pricing). I don't have a WLC to play with so I went searching for a network simulator and came across this:http://networksims.com/

Anybody use them? Opinions? It's cheap enough for me to go ahead and get so I may do a review on it later but they cover a BUNCH of emulators and it seems like it would be a valuable resource for people taking exams.

I got time to mess with it for a little while this afternoon and so far it's pretty awesome. I got the $58 bundle (one year) and it includes this:

Router, switch, PIX/ASA, Wireless, ASDM, VPN and SDM simulators.

Google book integration.

Cisco command/term/concept search.

CCNA.

CCNA ICND,CCNP SWITCH,CCNP ROUTE,CCNP TSHOOT.

CCNP: CCNP1 (Adv Routing - BCSI).

CCNP2 (Remote Access).

CCNP3 (BCMSN).

CCNP4 (Debug).

CCNP5 (ISCW).

CCNP6 (ONT).

CCNP Security SECURE (New!).

Wireless.

SNPA (PIX/ASA).

Security.

Host (Windows/UNIX).

Cisco Network Security 1.

Cisco Network Security 2.

Router Additional.

Switch Additional.

CCVP (Voice).

MPLS.

CCVP (Voice Gateway).

CCNA Wireless (with new WLC and ADU).

CCNA Security.

CCSP (SNRS).

CCNA Voice.

ASDM.

SDM (Alpha release).

Juniper JUNOS.

CCDA.

EEM.

Ethical Hacking (New!).

Check Point CCSA (New!).

A+ (New!).

CISSP (New!).

Security+ (New!)

Amazon AWS - EC2 elastic cloud and S3 data storage (New!).

CUCM Demo (New!)

Microsoft .NET.

Series of integrated lectures on security, wireless and switching.

Fun activities.

Full range of in-package and on-line tests.

70,000 test questions.

AND a bunch of books. There were 6 or 7 just on CCNA.It has you go through a series of challenges where you have to type in the correct commands on the different emulators to complete the task. This is mixed in with test questions and videos. For such a tiny price, it's really awesome. I haven't even got to the Ethical Hacking section yet I was so busy playing the Cisco WLC stuff.

It definitely looks like a sweet package. I've used http://www.howtonetwork.net/ before and it was decent. I didnt have all the equipment I wanted, so it definitely helped me with the CCNA. The company you are using looks legit. Good luck!

It looks like the premium package ($78) lists e-books, but you said you gets lots of books with $58 package. Trying to figure out what benefit the extra $20 is other than a suite of tools (don't need them anyway). Looks like a good deal and it is hard not to get $60-$80 value.

I was trying to figure that out myself. It looked like the toolset was the only difference. If anyone gets the full package please post whether the extra $20 is worth it. Maybe some special tools not usually seen?

I went ahead and got the $78 package because it indicated that updates would be provided for the first year, whereas the lesser packages required a $30/quarter subscription service for updates to the materials. I missed that the first time through. Now, whether or not the updates (or the toolset) is really worth $20, time will tell. Thanks for pointing out the site, now I just need more time to look at it.

Last edited by hell_razor on Mon Oct 17, 2011 10:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

Be sure to let us know what the updates turn out to be and whether the tool set includes any interesting or not well known stuff. I've had a lot of fun with it so far...it's really helping me remember how to do all those Cisco commands again.